A Couple Of Weird Tornado Stories I Can't Ignore. New Ones Today?

Tornado damage at the Snow Ridge Ski Area in New York's
Tug Hill Plateau. This area is usually known for epic
lake effect snowstorms, not strong tornadoes. 

Maybe I'm geeking out, but the storm that spared Vermont much trouble on Tuesday produced a couple of weird tornados. One in New York, and two in Massachusetts.  

The one in New York grabbed my attention because of the fact that it was a strong tornado in a place where strong tornadoes do not exist. Until now, apparently. 

First, I need to give you a minor geography lesson. If you've heard of New York's Tug Hill Plateau, it's because it snows there. A LOT. 

In the winter, cold west winds blow across Lake Ontario and collect moisture. That moisture is then forced to rise up into the Tug Hill Plateau a little east of Lake Ontario. The result is feet and feet and feet of snow. They can get six feet of snow in two or three days.

One thing the Tug Hill Plateau does not get is strong tornadoes. Until now. 

As the National Weather Service office in Buffalo, New York tell us, a  tornado Monday carved a 16-mile path from Lewis to Turin in the Tug Hill Plateau.  It had top winds of 140 making it an EF-3 tornado on the twister rating system. 

That's considered a pretty strong tornado. Twisters that are categorized as EF-3 stronger represent only six percent of all tornadoes annually in the United States.  NWS Buffalo describes the damage:

"....significant damage to two homes that included roof uplift and near total removal, a wall blowout of a garage and the complete destruction and shift from the foundation of a barn........The tornado then continued northward and crossed Fish Creek Road with damage to another hoe that removed the roof and caused significant damage in the walls of the second level of the home. It also did significant damage to a second barn and snapped many hardwood trees."

 Tornadoes that strong are rare anywhere in New York.  The last time an EF-3 touched down in the Empire State was in May, 2014.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, we have a candidate for a new tornado alley. Two relatively weak tornadoes touched down on the southeastern part of the state Tuesday. One was in Mattapoisett, the other in Barnstable, on Cape Cod.  

The odd thing I noticed is that the two tornado warnings that were issued Tuesday for parts of Cape Cod marked the 17th time since 2015 that area was put under such a warning.  I suspect there are counties in tornado alley areas of the Midwest and South that have had fewer tornado warnings since then.

Who knew lovely Cape Cod was also a storm chasing magnet of sorts?

As I write this early Saturday afternoon, new tornadoes were spinning up in Ohio, and threatening to move into Pennsylvania and New York State (At this point, Vermont still looks safe from this).

So, maybe tomorrow, I'll need to follow up this piece with new odd tornado stories?